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Gameday notes: 'Like Saturday at Masters,' Devils say now time for run

The Devils are home Tuesday against the red-hot Flyers, who as usual have done a lot of fighting this season. Flyers left wing Jay Rosehill (37), trading punches with Phoenixâs Paul Bissonnette last weekend, has a team-leading 6 fights for a club that is tied with Toronto for the league lead with 29.
(Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports)

NEWARK – Ryan Carter knows where the Devils are in the standings, what’s upcoming on their schedule and what time of the year it is.

“We’re past the winter solstice, so the days are getting longer and the games are getting shorter,” the veteran left wing said after practice Monday. “That makes these games that much more important.”

Up next for the Devils are three at home this week against the Flyers on Tuesday, Dallas on Thursday and Florida on Saturday before they leave town for a tough Toronto-Montreal-Colorado-Phoenix roadtrip.

“It’s a huge week,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s almost like a Saturday at The Masters. It’s time that we start making a move here. We’ve gotta have that mindset.”

It’s only early January and 39 games remain on the schedule, but the Devils dropped to 12th in the Eastern Conference after losing both ends of back-to-backs last weekend to Chicago, the NHL’s best team, and Buffalo, the NHL’s worst.

The Devils, under .500 again at 17-18-8, trail the Flyers and Washington by 4 points for one of three Metropolitan Division playoff spots, and they’re also 5 behind Toronto for the last of 2 conference wild cards.

“We got Philly, which is a big one,” Carter said. “It’s a 4-point swing. You can climb 2 or fall behind 2, obviously. We’re right there with them and you’ve got to take care of your games at home.”

The Devils and Flyers took turns shutting one another out in their two tight meetings earlier this season, with Jersey losing 1-0 at Prudential Center on Nov. 2 and winning 3-0 in Philly five days later. Then, both teams were trying to recover from awful starts to the season, 0-4-3 for the Devils and 1-7 for the Flyers, who fired coach Peter Laviolette after losing their first three and replaced him with assistant Craig Berube.

Now past the midway point to the season, the Devils need to make up for lost ground again after following a 5-1-2 run with a double dose of misery last weekend.

Meantime, the Flyers have been on a roll with an 8-2-1 record over their last 11, including 4-1 on a roadtrip that ends Tuesday after victories in Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary and Phoenix, and a loss in Colorado.

“We all know games against the Flyers are always hard,” Devils right wing Steve Bernier said. “It’s always fun playing them. They’re playing very well. We know them. We know how good they are. Even at the beginning of the year, they were dangerous.”

The Flyers are more defensive oriented under Berube, but still have lots of offensive firepower - Claude Giroux, Vinny Lecavalier, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Scott Hartnell, Brayden Schenn and Matt Reid at forward, Mark Streit and Kimmo Timonen on defense.

DeBoer was impressed scouting the Flyers, especially Streit, who signed with Philly last summer as an unrestricted free agent after captaining the Islanders last season.

“The games I’ve watched recently, he’s really coming back around into that elite defenseman,” DeBoer said.

Asked if these Flyers are a different team from when the Devils last saw them, DeBoer said, “Oh sure they are. Absolutely. Their big guys are delivering. We have to make sure we’re aware of that because some of their top-end guys are as good as any in the league.”

DEVILS NOTES

• Dating to the 2013 playoffs, the Devils are 9-2-1 against the Flyers. They took out the Flyers in 5 in the 2013 Eastern Conference semifinals, then had 4 victories and a shootout loss last season before splitting 2 games so far this season.

• RW Jaromir Jagr still leads the Devils in goals, assists and points, but he has no points in his last 3 games and just 1 assist over his last 7. Prior to that, he had a 7-game scoring streak, scoring 2 goals and 9 assists.

• Jagr still is sitting on 694 goals, which ties him with Mark Messier for 7th all-time. He also still needs 1 point to pass former Pittsburgh teammate Mario Lemieux for 7th all-time. Lemieux has 1,722 career points.

• G Martin Brodeur was in goal for the first 2 Devils-Flyers games this season, and after winning 3-0 and losing 1-0, he’ll get the start again Tuesday. He’s 49-31-9 with a 2.38 GAA and 12 shutouts in 90 career games against Philly.

• With an 84-65-24 three-season record as Devils coach, Pete DeBoer needs 4 wins to move from 7th to 4th on the franchise list. Pat Burns had 89 coaching wins, Robbie Ftorek had 88 and Larry Robinson had 87.

• The Devils are just 8-6-5 at home, but they’re 3-1-3 in their last 7.

• LW Dainius Zubrus has no points in his last 6 games.

• LW Ryane Clowe still is looking for his first goal as a Devil, as he has none in 11 games, none in 5 since returning from a concussion on Dec. 27.

FLYER NOTES

• RW Jakub Voracek has 7 goals and 17 points over his last 13 games after beginning the season with 3 goals and 12 points in his first 29 games.

• C Claude Giroux began the season with no goals in his first 15 games, but since has 12 in his last 27, including 7 in his last 10.

• LW Scott Hartnell has 3 goals in his last 5 games after going 9 without one.

• The Flyers’ 29 fights tie Toronto for the league lead. (The Devils have fought 7 times). Philly has had 13 players fight so far, and their leaders are Jay Rosehill (6), Wayne Simmonds (5), Zac Rinaldo (4), Brayden Schenn (3) and Luke Schenn (3). Steve Downie also has fought 3 times, but 2 occurred before his early season trade from Colorado to Philly.

• F Zac Rinaldo is fifth in the league with 96 penalty minutes and 10th with 133 hits.

• Giroux is the Flyers’ best face-off man at 52.8 percent, down from 54.5 percent last season.

• Luke Schenn is fourth among NHL defensemen with 122 hits and Nick Grossmann is tied for 12th with 103.